Crystal Adams had a teenage crush on Kyle Jensen. It turned to love the day she realized he was her mate. But before she could tell him, she discovered something that would change everything.
She is hiding a secret that will endanger him. To protect...
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Kyle
The run to the site was uneventful. I kept my senses on high alert as I ran with my beta. We could smell the blood before we found the red-stained grass where a rogue had lost its life. I shifted first and bent down to investigate the scene as James shifted.
"Did you find any trace of Crystal?" he asked, and I stilled.
I didn't want to be reminded of that while I was leaning over a pool of blood.
"There's nothing," I answered as I straightened up to face him. "It's like she just...disappeared into thin air."
James gave me a contemplative look.
"I thought back to when we were growing up and I can't think of any reason why she would be on the run," he said.
I had done the same and had come up empty.
"You think she's hiding something?" he asked with a slight crease in his forehead.
It would explain her strange behavior but what on earth could she be hiding?
"I don't know." I shrugged.
Anything was possible.
"How's Bay?" I asked, changing the subject.
James rubbed the back of his neck and let out a heavy sigh.
"She's Bay," he said before dropping his hand. "She's still trying to break every rule, to prove she doesn't care."
That sounded just like her. I had known her all her life. My earliest memories of her were as a small girl following us around wanting to be included. She had a problem with authority, which had grown worse over the years. Most werewolves integrated into the pack life well but not James' sister. She fought every aspect of her supernatural life.
I could see the underlying worry in his eyes. It was always there when he spoke about his younger sister.
"Maybe she'll calm down when she finds her mate," I said, trying to ease his fear.
"Good luck to that guy," James said, shaking his head. "He's going to need it."
She would be a handful no matter who her mate was. I had been told mates were chosen to suit each other. It would be interesting to see who ended up with her one day.
Bay hadn't always been this way. When she had been younger she had been a happy, carefree little girl. But growing up in a household where boys were put above girls had changed her. It didn't take a shrink to figure out why Bay was the way she was. The difficulty was figuring out how to fix it. James had tried his best to make up for the lack of recognition and praise but he couldn't fix a fundamental flaw in his family.
It wasn't something James really spoke about. We were best friends and that meant I saw what happened in his household. James had spent most of his teenage life covering for her and trying to keep her out of trouble but he could only do so much. Now she was an adult she would be held accountable for her actions. He couldn't cover up for her anymore.
